My new favorite places: Charleston and Kiawah
Published July 21, 2006 by Robbie
My wife and I recently spent two days in Charleston and three days on Kiawah Island. I had been wanting to visit Charleston for some time. The history, the Southern culture, the great climate — all right up my alley. I was not disappointed! Nor was I disappointed by Kiawah Island, which is easily the nicest resort/golf destination in the Carolinas.
In Charleston, we walked around a bit and went on a nice tour of the historic area. We also stopped by a couple of the old cemeteries. Here is a rather eery cemetery we went in that has tombstones dating back to the 1700s:
Notice the hanging moss. It grows all over Charleston. Charleston also has my two favorite trees growing in abundance: palm trees and crape myrtles. The crape myrtles were in full bloom, which made Charleston’s Historic section very colorful.
Kiawah Island is a private resort island set about 30 minutes southeast of Charleston. You need reservations to even get beyond the first gate. We stayed at the lone hotel on the island called The Santuary. It is the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at on the east coast and rivals many of the nice resort that you’d find in California:
This was the view from our room:
We reserved the basic Garden room, but they upgraded us for free to a premier ocean view. Nice!
Kiawah is known for golf (they want to host a future US Open and will host the PGA Championship in 2012). They have 7 golf courses total. 2 are restricted to members of the “club” while the other 5 are open to anyone staying on the island. I chose to play at the one the concierge told me was the “most wide open” of the 5. It was the Osprey course, so named after the large, rather ugly birds that can be seen all over the course.
I saw signs warning about alligators, but I didn’t really believe it. Alligators on a golf course? As we drove to the clubhouse after playng 18, I saw something in the grass right beside the sidewalk:
On closer inspection:
Yikes! Talk about a hazard. My wife and I saw another alligator in a river by the hotel one evening as we drove around. You are definitely close to nature in Kiawah!
All in all, we really enjoyed the trip and plan to go back again (hopefully soon).
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Robbie,
Nice job on your blog layout. The photos turned out great. I am a frequent traveler of this great vacation destination and have been come close to those gators on Osprey and Turtle Point. They make you think twice about looking for the errant golf shots. Next time you go to Charleston, also consider doing a ghost walk. The guides are pretty good and giving you an in-depth history of the city and the cemetaries.
Regards,
Brad